SALT LAKE CITY (NEWSnet/AP) — Three hikers died over the weekend in suspected heat-related medical emergencies while visiting state and national parks in Utah.

The fatalities included a father and daughter who got lost on a strenuous hike in Canyonlands National Park in triple-digit temperatures, the National Park Service reported.

Tourists continue to flock to parks in Utah and other southwestern states during the hottest months of the year, even as officials caution that hiking in extreme heat poses serious health risks.

Two Fatalities at Canyonlands National Park

 

The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office identified the two on Monday as Albino Herrera Espinoza and his daughter, Beatriz Herrera, of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

The daughter, 23, and her father, 52, sent a 911 text alerting dispatchers that they were lost and had run out of water while hiking the 8.1 miles of Syncline Loop, described by the National Park Service as the most challenging trail in the Island in the Sky district of the southeast Utah park. The pair set out Friday to navigate steep switchbacks and scramble through boulder fields with limited trail markers as the air temperature surpassed 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Park rangers and a helicopter crew with the Bureau of Land Management began a search for the lost hikers in the early evening Friday, but found them already dead.

Because of complications from jagged terrain, safety officials used a helicopter to airlift the bodies out of the park and to the state medical examiner on Saturday morning, according to the sheriff’s office. Their deaths are being investigated as heat-related by the local sheriff and the National Park Service.

One Fatality at Snow Canyon State Park

 

Later Saturday, first responders in southwest Utah responded to a call about two hikers “suffering from a heat related incident” at Snow Canyon State Park, which is known for its lava tubes, sand dunes and a canyon carved from red and white Navajo Sandstone.

A multi-agency search team found and treated two hikers who were suffering from heat exhaustion. While they were treating those individuals, a passing hiker informed them of an unconscious person nearby. First responders found that 30-year-old woman dead, public safety officials said.

Her death is being investigated by the Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department. She has not been identified publicly.

Fatalities in Pacific Northwest

 

Elsewhere on Monday, authorities said a 61-year-old man was found dead inside his motor home in eastern Washington state. The man likely died Wednesday when the temperature in the area reached 108 degrees Fahrenheit, Franklin County Coroner Curtis McGary said.

Authorities also suspected heat in the death of an 81-year-old man Saturday in Oregon but have released no further details.

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